One thousand trees to be planted downtown

Trees and ornamental flowers line the Museum Reach portion of the San Antonio River. BILLY CALZADA / EXPRESS-NEWS

If there’s been a fundamental shift in our city’s outlook on environmental matters, Mayor Julián Castro and his government cohorts most definitely deserve gold stars.

In just the past year in downtown alone, more than 30 bike racks were installed, a new bike rental system was announced, many of the parking meters were replaced by solar-powered pay stations and, two weeks ago, 25 recycle cans were placed on sidewalks.

Today, City Council blessed the Downtown Tree Planting Initiative — a program that will add 1,000 trees to the central business district by the end of the summer. This morning, with assistance from Mayor Castro, the first two — two Chinquapin Oaks — were inserted into the sidewalk near the Magik Children’s Theatre.

“We’ve never done anything like this before,” city forester Michael Nentwich said. “We’ve planted some downtown trees in the past but they’ve been in small numbers.”

Besides downtown’s 1,000, the city has planted a little more than 6,000 citywide in a program approved by City Council in May 2010. An additional 3,000 trees will be planted throughout the city by the summer. That’s a total of 10,000.

For downtown, shading sidewalks and streets is the priority. “The goal is to put most of them in the right-of-ways, sidewalks, to shade parking lots, to basically reduce temperatures and add beauty to those central corridors,” Nentwich said.

Each downtown tree will cost about $100, and will be paid for through savings in city tree-planting programs. The 9,000 trees citywide will cost the city $1.4 million, which is paid for through the city’s Tree Mitigation Fund. The fund is fed by developers who are either assessed fees or fined depending on their compliance with the city’s tree ordinance.

Before much of the planting can begin, the city’s public works department must adjust some of downtown’s infrastructure. According to the City Council’s agenda, $500,000 from Public Works general fund has been allocated for this work.

As for the kinds of trees, Nentwich said he won’t know the various species until they’re in the ground, but species diversity will be part of the program’s approach. “The more diversity, the greater the ecological health,” he said.